Politics for a Better America: BE POLITE,PLEASE

Politics for a Better America: BE POLITE,PLEASE

BE POLITE,PLEASE

Make 250 calls a day.  That was my mission last week.  There were two special elections, and we wanted to contact as many people as possible to let them know  why our candidates were best for Michigan.

For the most part, people were polite.  They asked about the candidate, became informed about how this process would work with a closed primary occurring on the same day.  I felt good about doing the work of a democracy:  educating voters.

But, oh, there were some grouchy people.

 

“Would you people stop calling me?”

“What’s wrong with you people?”

“You politicians are all crooks anyway, why should I vote for any of you?”

Now, I know it is frustrating for people to receive so many phone calls.  Elections can become tiring and there are times we just want them to go away.

But let’s look at this from a different angle today.  

First, we all want good, honest, truth-speaking people to represent us in the halls of government.  And let’s face it.  Seeing who that person really is can be a tough job. For that reason, good politicians meet as many people as they can.  That way the voter is better equipped to make a good decision on Election Day.    When a politician knocks on your door or talks personally to you on the phone, or at an event, it is your opportunity to gauge whether you want that person to represent you.  

But let’s face it; it is not possible for any one candidate to talk to every person in any electoral district.  So clearly, that person needs surrogates to go out and talk to voters for him or her.  Those surrogates, in order to make personal contact with voters, have a limited number of options.  They can make phone calls or knock on peoples’ doors to talk with them.  Each of these options is somewhat intrusive.

But voters, here is my rant for the day.  Instead of looking at phone calls and visits from politicians or their surrogates as an intrusion, let’s look at those moments as opportunities to get to know the people we choose to represent us in Lansing or in Washington.

I am only asking you to have patience for the political process for a few weeks before an election.  It is the price we pay for living in a democracy.  There are people who have done so much more to keep our democracy strong.  They have gone to war, become wounded, or even given their lives so we have this precious right to self-govern.

So the next time you receive a call, even if it is annoying or intrusive, please have patience with the phone caller.  Take the opportunity to find out more about the candidate, or Election Day, or where to vote, or what the important issues are.  Instead of being grouchy, thank the person calling for his or her service.  It is a teeny-tiny price we pay to live in our representative democracy. Enjoy it.

Better yet, after you have looked deeply into the issues, take the time to make some calls yourself, knock on a few doors or come on down and see how you can help out at the candidates’ headquarters.  On Election Day, get others out to vote.  The election process is more important than anything else you are doing.

Maybe you’ll even join me in making 250 phone calls a day.  And maybe – just maybe – we can have legislators who will represent us in Lansing, instead of the gas, oil and big drug companies.

INTRODUCING . . . COLLENE LAMONTE

It’s time for our legislators to do the job or get out of the way. Their record is abysmal. 

Emergency Managers (EMs), small-time dictators, are now taking over cities and schools. 

Students are going without libraries, physical education and art classes. 

Students are packed in their classrooms like sardines, and as a result are not getting the attention they need and deserve.

Privatization is rising; wages are falling.

Taxes have increased 1,000% on our poorest residents (by legislators who call themselves pro family).

The 1% is gaining ground at the expense of the 99%.

And the legislators who got us into this mess have millions of dollars with which to convince the electorate this is what’s best for us.

I have a question for you. Should we stand by and watch?  Or should we to stand together to create a brighter future for Michigan? 

My vote is for us to stand and fight.  We can do it; we can put reasonable people back into the legislature.  But it won’t be easy.  It will take the participation of every last person who sees what is happening and doesn’t like it.

There is so much we can do. 

Number one on that list is electing legislators who will truly represent us.

We have a fantastic candidate in the 91^st district. Her name is Collene Lamonte; she is a high school science teacher, bright capable and hard-working.  I support her 1000%.  You can learn more about Collene by going to her Facebook Page, Collene Lamonte for Michigan’s 91^st District.  Please go there and “like.”

Please study up on Collene and then let me know how you can help. 

Remember. We can do this.  But it will take all of us.

Mary Valentine

(If you would like to donate to Collene’s campaign, please go to: 

https://actblue.secure.com/entity/fundraisers/28706

WOW!  What a fantastic turn-out for the Holly Hughes coffee hour today -- about 40 people.

Sadly, though, she was proficient at not answering most of our questions.  The meeting was an hour long, with lots of good discussion and many great questions.  This is a summary of some of those issues.

There was a great deal of discussion about referendum-free laws which have been passed recently.   She answered by talking about her work for Veterans (really!  I couldn't make this stuff up).  When pressed, she came back to the referendum-free laws and denied that was happening.  When further pressed, she attempted to convince us that appropriation and policy bills could not be separated and said she'd look into it .  Many people addressed this issue with considerable passion.

When asked about the Lansing casino, she said the governor was against it but would initially not tell us what she thought about it.  She also gave a lot of irrelevant information. Eventually, she mentioned that personally she isn't crazy about them.

When I asked her about her 0% rating from Clean Water Action, she completely ignored the question and told us about her history as an environmental activist in the 90s. 

(Because of that activism, people assumed she would vote as an environmentalist.  Thus, it is all the more disappointing that she received a 0% rating from Clean Water Action).

She was also asked about the situation in Muskegon Heights.  She mentioned the superintendents she had talked with and agreed it was a problem.  Dave Frederick drew applause for the following question:  why is there money for bail-outs of the world's largest  banks, for General Motors,  and tax breaks and large subsidies  for  businesses, but not a bail-out for Muskegon Heights?

Tracy Dobson informed Rep. Hughes that 80% of the American public believes the Citizen United decision is wrong  and asked her to introduce a resolution in the legislature for a constitutional amendment to repeal the Citizens' United ruling, which allows corporations to be people.  She answered by talking  about the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act and a bunch of irrelevant details. When pressed, she said she would look into the resolution, which was handed to her.

She agreed that Cyber Schools were not good for kids but did not know how she would handle that issue when it came before her for a vote; she said she would have to study the bill, which is now in committee.

When asked about large corporations passing along the costs of their clean-ups to taxpayers, she talked about the Zephyr clean-up and how good it was that taxpayers were paying $6,000,000. for the clean-up and she would try to get additional money as well BECAUSE SHE KNOWS FULL WELL THAT IT WILL COST FAR MORE THAN THAT.  She said it was not possible for the private companies that own it to pay for their own clean up because there were three companies.  Tracy Dobson asked why it could not be split up in thirds.  She did not answer.

Someone asked her about horizontal hydraulic fracking.  She did not seem to know much about it, which is surprising considering how much has been written about it in recent months.  She said she would look into it.

 

Another speaker inquired about why taxpayers are paying for environmental clean ups instead of the polluters themselves.  She then went into the Zephyr money and never responded to the main question (polluters used to be required to pay into a fund that was used for cleanups but Engler got rid of it).

 

So these are the issues we need to follow up on: her vote on cyber schools (she agreed with us that students need hands-on teachers), the resolution for a constitutional amendment related to the citizen's united ruling, referendum-proof laws, and horizontal fracking.

SCHOOL FUNDING: ALL OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY

He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

This is the text of a speech I gave at the Oakridge Rally for Education Funding.
 
I want to remind everyone here and our legislature that our forefathers demanded public education. They knew that to keep our democracy strong and vibrant, we need an educated citizenry. 

And I don't need to tell you that the state of education in Michigan is a mess. Lansing won't let us raise our own funds, yet they refuse to fund us adequately and equitably. They say they want consolidation, but at the same time, they allow for-profit, non-transparent schools to proliferate, squeezing ever increasing funds from our traditional neighborhood schools. 

Our traditional neighborhood schools have been the backbone of our country since its very inception. Now the decisions being made in Lansing are putting them at risk. We now have people who know absolutely nothing about education making all the decisions about it in Lansing. It’s easy, then, to blame Lansing.

The truth is, though, that we in this room must take responsibility for what has happened. We are the people who put those legislators in office. We must be the ones to replace them with legislators who value -- and will vote to support – funding for our traditional neighborhood schools, those who take every student. 

Every single one of us in this room, including me, is responsible for who we send to Lansing to make decisions for us. When we fail to do every single thing we can to send responsible legislators to Lansing, we are part of the problem. 

We cannot change the past, but we can learn from our mistakes and do better in our future. My comments here tonight are a call to arms. Not the arms of bombs and guns, but the arms of political engagement. We are in the battle of our lives. We can be part of the problem by sitting on the sideline and watching. Or we can be part of the solution by engaging in the political process. 

I was a teacher in the public schools for over 30 years, and there is one thing I know for sure. Teachers are hard-working individuals, dedicated to their students. But perhaps that dedication to our students, that single-mindedness of purpose, has contributed to our own downfall. 

For too long, we have abdicated our responsibility to the political decision-making process. It is up to us to each and every one of us in this room to send responsible and responsive legislators to Lansing. We are at a point where simply voting is no longer enough. There is no one single, identifiable group more threatened by Lansing politics than educators and their students. This reminds me of the poignant words of Pastor Martin Niemoller 

First they came for the Communists 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a Communist 
Then they came for the Socialists 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a Socialist 
Then they came for the trade unionists 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a trade unionist 
Then they came for the Jews 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a Jew 
Then they came for me 
And there was no one left 
To speak out for me.

Another way to say this:

First they came for the custodians and I did not speak out because I am not a custodian.
Then they came for the bus drivers, but I did not speak out because I am not a bus driver.
Then they came for the substitute teachers, but I did not speak out because I was not a substitute teacher.
Then they came for me.  And there was no one left to speak out.

As a profession, we public school employees and retirees must rally and prepare for battle. The battle is the 2012 elections and we must win. We simply cannot afford to be defeated – far too much is at stake. 

Those of us in this room right now? It is our job to make democracy work and save our public education system. That is why I opened with King's quote tonight. Michigan is in a crisis. Things are bad, but without our help, they could get much worse. And if we sit by the sidelines and watch, we are part of the problem. 

There is so much that needs to be done. Please join the struggle for a better education for Michigan students. There are two tracks that need to be addressed: constant communication with our legislators. And if they don't listen, engage in political campaigns to replace those leaders.

I am asking you to engage in the political process. 

Is this easy? NO. 

Does it make us uncomfortable? YES 

But we all do uncomfortable things. We have had that first day on a new job, faced an irate boss or customer or parent or constituent. We don’t run away from those experiences; we face them. We do uncomfortable things all the time because it’s the right thing to do. Now it is time for each of us to face down our discomfort to become true patriots and join the political realm -- for the sake of Michigan's students. 

Every single person here can do something: donate money, no matter how small the amount, to a political candidate – not to your union, but to the candidate. Keep giving to your union’s Political Action Committee. It is important. But please give to the candidate him or herself. Every single person here can knock on a door or make a phone call, walk in a parade, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us. 

There are nearly four thousand public school employees working in Muskegon County. If just half of us donated $10 to the state candidate who supports education and the people who educate, we could raise $20,000 to help defeat the Lansing politicians who have voted to slash funding for schools and ultimately your wages and benefits. If you can donate $10 every month until November, we could fund the whole darn campaign. The best part?? Ten dollars a month is nothing. We could squeeze that out of our budget and not even know it’s gone. 

The time to jump in is not tomorrow or next week. There is no timefor procrastination. The time to jump in is right now. 

Thank you.

CDC

We ARE The People

This is the text of a speech given by Anne Pawli at the WATP event held on Saturday, Oct. 29.

 We are a diverse coalition of organizations, the old, the young, the retired, the unemployed, students and workers, who understand evil is afoot in Michigan.  We were promised the American Dream but woke up in a nightmare, where elders' pensions are taxed, the poor are left hungry and homeless, teachers and other public employees are scapegoated as parasites on the system and working class women and men are told to downsize their plans for a secure retirement.  We are here because we know if we don't unite and face our foe together, we will be picked off and trampled underfoot one by one by one.  It has already begun.   

We are nonviolent.  We treat each other, and those who do not understand the urgency of our cause, with dignity and respect.  As MLK said, “Don't bring your opponent to their knees, bring them to their senses” and that is exactly what we intend to do.  But let's be clear: nonviolence does not mean we acquiesce to the outrageous policies coming out of Lansing.  We will stand together, arm in arm, back to back in support of each other, and we will stand toe to toe against the 1-percent and politicians who do not believe the shared burden of sacrifice pertains to them.  We will not go quietly into that good night.

We are a voice for those being forced to bear more of the burden of Lansing's misguided policies than they can possibly shoulder.  We are demanding our voices be heard by those elected to represent us.  WATP invited Sen. Goeff Hansen, Rep. Holly Hughes and Rep. Marcia Hovey-Wright to attend today's rally.  We expected our representatives would have the moral courage to face their constituents and defend or justify their votes on legislation which will hurt the most vulnerable among us.  We hoped they had solutions for the terrible problems their new policies will create.  All three legislators said they had prior commitments.  Only Rep. Hovey-Wright felt compelled to change her plans so she could join us today.   

We are angry, but we will not let our anger control us.  We cannot afford to be paralyzed by our rage.  And so we are here today to harness our outrage into action.  The powers in Lansing think we are distracted, asleep, hopeless and helpless.  They couldn't be more mistaken.  The sleeping giant has awakened.  We are going to organize, educate, motivate and irritate if we have to, our neighbors, friends, relatives and coworkers.  We are going to make sure what happened last November doesn't happen in 2012.  We are the people.  We have the power.  We are watching.  We are listening. And we will vote for our best interests Nov 6, 2012.